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FBI warns Congress that cybercriminals can hack any internet-linked system

An FBI cyber official warned Congress that cybercriminals with enough time, motivation, and funding are able “to penetrate any system that is accessible directly from the internet.”

Testifying this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and terrorism, Gordon M. Snow, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said that this vulnerability to cyber attacks extends to the nation’s critical infrastructure.

“It is difficult to state with confidence that our critical infrastructure – the backbone of our country’s economic prosperity, national security, and public health – will remain unscathed and always be available when needed”, he said.

Snow cited the security breach at the parent company of Nasdaq as an example of the vulnerability of privately owned critical infrastructure, such as financial institutions, to cyber attack.

“The FBI is concerned about the proliferation of malicious techniques that could degrade, disrupt, or destroy critical infrastructure. Although likely only advanced threat actors are currently capable of employing these techniques, as we have seen with other malicious software tools, these capabilities will eventually be within reach of all threat actors”, he said.

Not only critical infrastructure is at risk. The private sector is also threatened by the theft of intellectual property and supply chain disruption from cybercriminals.